CIAO DATE: 07/2008
June 2008
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Free trade agreements between the West (U.S. and EU) and Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, while containing beneficial elements, have strengthened negative perceptions of “western-led globalization” because they benefit unpopular elites and impose serious short term economic adjustment, concludes Riad al Khouri, a Carnegie Middle East Center economist specializing in MENA countries.
Examining the socio-economic and political effects of American and European trade agreements on Jordan, Morocco, and Egypt in EU and U.S. Free Trade Agreements in the Middle East and North Africa, al Khouri notes the more active pursuit of FTAs as an economic policy tool with political goals by the United States and the European Union in recent years.
Key Findings:
• Trade
between the United States and MENA countries grew in a relatively
balanced manner, while FTAs between the EU and the Mediterranean region
favored the EU.
• Bilateral security cooperation between the United States and MENA countries strengthened after signing free trade agreements.
• The
United States is keen on full trade agreements with MENA countries, in
contrast to the EU, whose agreements with MENA countries do not include
agriculture and immigration.
• If the EU and MENA countries could
come to broader agreement on liberalizing agricultural products and
promoting controlled immigration, the Southern Mediterranean region
would benefit greatly.
He concludes:
“The
current U.S. and EU initiatives are a step in the right direction, but
they alone cannot lead to robust, sustainable growth in the MENA region
or create regional stability. The overall growth and precarious
stability that the region has been able to achieve still has little to
do with bilateral economic links with the U.S. or the EU. Nevertheless,
FTAs and similar agreements show signs of increasing importance for
both the West and the MENA region, with implications for EU and U.S.
trade relations with other regions as well.”
Resource link: EU and U.S. Free Trade Agreements in the Middle East and North Africa [PDF] - 160K